Wooster Football Game Notes - Game 10 (PDF)
A chance for a third-place North Coast Athletic Conference finish is on the table this week when The College of Wooster football team (6-3, 5-3 NCAC) travels to Wittenberg University (6-3, 6-2 NCAC) for the final game of the 2021 season. Kickoff from Edwards-Maurer Field is set for 1 p.m. on Saturday, November 13. A Wooster win would up the program's record to 7-3, marking the best showing since the Scots went 7-3 (7-2 NCAC) and finished in third-place in 2013, ninth-year head coach Frank Colaprete's first year leading the program. Wooster's currently tied with Wabash College for fifth-place in the NCAC, and there is a three-way tie for second-place. Denison University and Ohio Wesleyan University play each other, so the loser of that game will drop to 6-3 in the conference, as will Wittenberg if Wooster wins. Wooster is coming off a 59-41 win over Allegheny College, while Wittenberg dismantled Wabash 35-14 on the road.
On The Air: Wittenberg will provide a livestream of this week's contest at https://portal.stretchinternet.com/wit/. WQKT Sports Country Radio will carry this week's contest on its AM station (WKVX 960 AM) live and online at https://wqkt.com.
All-Time Series: Wittenberg leads the all-time series 41-12-1 and has won the last 11 meetings. The teams first met in 1912, a game won by Wooster 12-0. In fact, Wooster won the first two meetings in series history by identical 12-0 scores. Wittenberg holds a 22-3-1 edge in games played in Springfield, and the Tigers have a 21-game home winning streak in the series. Wooster's last win in Springfield was a 27-21 victory back in 1949.
Last Meeting: Wooster had a chance to tie its contest with Wittenberg at 14 with 4:32 remaining, but the Scots couldn't connect on a two-point try, and the host Tigers held on for a 14-12 win on September 21, 2019. Then-sophomore Troy Baughman (McKinney, Texas/Frisco Independence) scored from two yards out to cap the afternoon's scoring, as then-senior tight end Jacob Lewis wasn't able to reach out enough to secure then-sophomore Mateo Renteria's (Houston, Texas/Cypress Creek) two-point pass. Leading up to the touchdown, Wooster did convert a couple of key plays, including on fourth-and-8 from Wittenberg's 25-yard line. Wooster twice had a chance to stop Wittenberg on third down in the final minutes. Jaheem Washington and Blake King kept the chains moving with a 14-yard run each, the latter of which enabled the Tigers to kneel down and run out the clock.
Offense Notes: Renteria is coming off a career day, in which he broke four single-game school records - total offense (550 yards), completions (38-for-51), passing yards (506), and passing touchdowns (6). Renteria surpassed Richard Barnes (2010-14) for second-place on the program's all-time passing list, and his 7,388 yards now trail Gary Muntean's (2014-17) 8,295. Renteria needs 225 yards passing this week to join Muntean (3,165; 2017) as the lone quarterbacks in program history to have a 3,000-yard season. Renteria's next completion will be his 200th on the year, and he'll join Muntean as the lone Scots to have two 200-completion seasons. Renteria's 26 touchdown passes are the second-most in single-season program history, trailing Muntean's 33 from 2017. Renteria has thrown at least three touchdown passes in seven games this fall. Senior tight end Cole Hissong (Shreve, Ohio/Triway) is now tops in program history for receiving touchdowns by a tight end at 15. Lewis still has a 112-yard hold on Hissong when it comes to most receiving yards by a tight end. Senior center Eli Lohrey (Hamilton, Ohio/Edgewood) is projected to make his 36th consecutive start (38 counting the two exhibition games from the spring) this week. Wooster is 10th nationally in passing offense at 321 yards per game, while Renteria ranks ninth individually in yards, 12th in touchdowns, and 25th in efficiency (163.1 points). Junior Andrew Yanssens (Columbiana, Ohio/Crestview) is tied for tops in the NCAC with eight rushing touchdowns. First-year Bryant Douglas II (Youngstown, Ohio/Chaney) logged the fifth 200-yard receiving game in program history on Saturday, and the first since alumnus Nick Strausbaugh went for 212 stripes in the first half at Kenyon College in 2017. Douglas II's 13 receptions are the most since alumnus Tyson Vogel's school-record 15 against DePauw University in 2015.
Defense Notes: Wooster now leads the NCAC in fumble recoveries at 10. Sophomore Alex White (Fayetteville, Ga./Fayette County) leads the team with two. Senior Beau Greenwood (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mount Lebanon) recovered a fumble that was forced by junior Langston Williams (New York, N.Y./Xavier) last week. Sophomore Neil Clayton (Boydton, Va./Bluestone) added one as well, with classmate Domenic DeMuth (Mayfield Village, Ohio/Mayfield) getting credit for a strip sack late in the fourth quarter. Wooster had a season-high three interceptions on the year. After only having one interception through the first seven games of the year, the Scots have four in the last two weeks. Senior Angelo Petracci (Youngstown, Ohio/Canfield), junior Matt Ulishney (Greensburg, Pa./Serra District Catholic), and Williams had last week's picks.
Special Teams Notes: Junior Lake Barrett (Columbia, S.C./Hammond School) ranks fourth in the conference with 62 points. Barrett is a perfect 44-for-44 on extra point tries this year, and he's 6-for-8 on field goals. He's looking to become the first kicker in program history to have over 40 extra point tries in a season without a miss.
This and That: Wooster's 338 points this season marks the seventh time in the last 20 years the Scots have scored over 300 points in a season. Wooster last scored over 59 points during a 63-10 rout of Oberlin College on September 20, 2014. Wooster last scored over 50 points in back-to-back games in 2004 when the Scots hung 59 on Oberlin (59-13), 59 on Hiram College (59-0), and 64 on Wittenberg (64-58 OT).